Oban, Scotland

This was another new port for us.

This was a tender port and how very Scottish that a piper was playing for us as each tender arrived.

We continued to be amazed at all the chimney flues in these old buildings.

There were some mosaics on the stone wall in this garden, but what we liked the best were
the "legs" with boots in the middle of the garden.

Our early morning goal is to reach the arched wall at the top of the hill before the crowds arrive.

We continued up through a nice neighborhood.

McCaig's Tower, built between 1896 and 1902, was modeled after the Colosseum in Rome, but was never finished.

There are great views from this perch above town.

We walked back down through town and out by that last church by the water.

There were many beautifully cared for houses and gardens along the way.

We were going to talk to these guys, but they were busy with their own agenda for their geezer biker adventures.

There was a nice flock of Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle) in the habor. Their legs are bright red.

A lovely old hotel facing the harbor.

In front of that hotel was this bubble room for comfortable outside dining.

Here's that church we saw from the hill.

We continued to walk along the waterfront beyond that church. This restaurant has been fashioned from an old house.

And so it was with most of these grand stone buildings along the waterfront. They'd all found new life as businesses.

We crossed the street to take this path toward a castle.

Back out at the waterfront again to see this short lighthouse with the castle in the background.

 
The Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) was in full bloom.

 
An interesting remnant of what was probably an archway carved out by water.

As we approached the castle, there were sheep.

 
The castle and the castle grounds were closed, so we took the path less traveled to the top of a hill.

We found our way down the other side of the hill into a suburban neighborhood with this playground.
We took advantage of one of the benches there to have some lunch.

As we approached the tender dock, the woman was on the beach with her watchful dog.

As we walked closer, the dog kept an eye on us as we walked on by.

We had about seven miles by the end of the day. And the next day was Dublin, Ireland.

Dublin, Ireland

We'd been to Dublin in 2013, so see what we did then. It's interesting for us to look back to our traveling style ten years ago because we did not have access to Maps.me and had to be more careful of not getting lost. We've come a long way since then.

We were docked at some distance from Dublin and took a public bus, which dropped us in the heart of Dublin.

 
Okay, time to get a bearing for our day's plan.

 
Some of the brass placards embedded in the sidewalk.

An iconic Irish pub.

 
Etched stones in the walk presumably date back to Roman occupation.

A classic Greek building with a piece of colorful art in front of it.

 
We went through this archway to get to Dublin Castle.

Other doorways and an arch leading into the castle courtyard.

These posters reflect an exhibition in the castle museum.

 
Etchings of jousting knights were on the outside castle wall.

 
We continued our trek through the city.

 
We wondered about the four chimneys based around some type of structure above street level.

St. Patrick's Cathedral was founded in 1191 as a Roman Catholic cathedral and has had a complex history over the centuries.

"Liberty Bell" was commissioned as part of the celebrations marking the Dublin ‘Millennium’ in 1988.

The arched connection between these churches was unusual.

 
This three-story white building with the arches and domed atrium next to this stone arch seemed out of place in Dublin. It's Stephen's Green Shopping Centre, which is named after St. Stephen's Green, a city park we had just walked through. It was built and opened in the 1980's. It looks like it belongs in New Orleans instead of Dublin.

We walked through a lovely park on the way to the train station.

A street performer with a portable piano had attracted quite a crowd.

Lots of people waiting for the train...

 
We loved this undulating mosaic bench back in the port.

 
Sailing is a theme.

The name of the port is on this sculpture, while it looks complicated, it's pronounced "Done Leary."

The gate to our entrance has nice view of a small sailboat class race. When we got back we had about 9 miles on the old pedometer. The next day was our second stop in Ireland, Cobh, which is pronounced "Cove."